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I'm a sucker for an Aussie film, especially when they get it as right as this.

The usual unloading of things i've been toying with. Nothing seems to quite work but i suppose if it was all worked out by now, the second semester would be a very dull affair!
I can't get the idea of cavernous eyes out of my head but i can't quite get them onto paper yet. I live in hope.
I am dreading my assessment. DREADING.

There is more than likely going to be an influx of Scottish blogs, noting down forever the little bit of magic we witnessed on the 23rd of November 2008.
And so they damn well should.
Snow still makes me giddy and waking up to it this morning - even after the night of extreme nausea i was suffering from - was no less magic than when i was a wee girl. It did, however, take me a few minutes to understand what snow was again...mornings are not my forte. Branded 'The Littlest Zombie' at one point, i believe.

First snow!

I feel that i need this book.
A 1954. 1st Edition. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Illustrated by Mervyn Peake.

If only i had £200 pounds to spare!

I long for an antique bookshop in the area. You'd think it obligatory for a small town to harbour at least one but alas, no, Blairgowrie is burdened with an inordinate amount of charity shops and pubs. Hrumph.
There's this vague memory i have of being in an old rickety bookshop somewhere in Britain, i've never forgotten its smell and the closeness of the shelves and most of all the balcony encircling the upper walls - i'm sure there's a name for those - where more books were slumbering. Yes, i choose to believe books sleep when they are not read.
I want to go back there, wherever there was.

Apologies for the shoddy photograph.
I've been working on this for the past couple of days. It's the most progress i've made in a while, progress i've been happy about.
Not at first obviously, i railed against the use of paint like nobody's business but of course, my dad, the one who suggested i continue down this path after seeing a sketch in my notebook, convinced me it was the right thing to do. He's always sodding right.
It very much annoys me that i can't be objective about my work and miss things like this. I'll never be able to look at a piece of work and see what others see. The burden of being an artist. Woe is me...
I'm enjoying this process though, it just needs refined and other techniques tried out. Also, perhaps, a change of age in the subject.
Also decided to leave printmaking until next semester, would be an awful shame to start with two weeks left and then be stranded during the month off for Christmas. Where the hell did semester one go?

My poor computer is not a very happy bunny. He creaks and cries and it's all my fault.
Should i clear his insides out and feed him four more GB of memory?
I think so. I don't want him shuffling off this technological coil after only a year!

Two days, three fantastic exhibitions. Good stuff.
I fell a little bit in love with Schalken's, 'A boy blowing on charcoal'

The newest editions to the 'you'll never figure this out' series.
I really really enjoy silverpoint but it's not gonna work for this project, far too tidy. Perhaps i'll use it for pretty pictures of country life to sell to my townspeople. Yes, that sounds like a plan.
Which reminds me! I've a winter scene to get to.
Stressed out. Although, best day in the studio yet. All we needed were some good tunes to kill the antisocial behaviour! White Stripes, Bon Iver, Elliott Smith.
I think i need to get back on the Red Bull to kill my lethargy. Bad idea? Yeah...

A happy accident.
In keeping with the moon theme, I happened across these photographs of unknown german designers' moon installations.
Having been a victim to nyctophobia as a child, and as an 'adult' who loathes walking away from dark rooms and insists on sitting cross-legged in all chairs, one of these would have made the night a far more welcoming place.
Magic.

This is just something i was working on today.
After being reintroduced to Giacometti's portraits, i've been trying to use his more atavistic style of drawing. I do tend to become obsessed with the detail rather than the person but i do love drawing quickly and very linearly, so Giacometti's work provided a much needed catalyst.
I'm not exactly happy with this drawing, it's still too polite.
Expression has really got me in a bind!
I really don't want to use big emotive faces but i feel like the more blank expressions are just too emotionless. Uchttt!
I did favourite a photograph on DA today which shows exactly what i want. If only i'd taken it: http://CBJJBC.deviantart.com/art/De-Profundis-103025045

I'm a big believer that if you're going to write something on a wall, make it something worth reading.
Take note.

There's something about being a painter and creating extraordinary light.
I truly envy that.
It's achievable while using charcoal but even the whitest of whites - not that white exists - takes on a greyish tone. Pisses me right off.
I think i'm going to try and combine the two but seeing as i'm a hopeless painter, disaster could ensue.
Curse Alex Kanevsky and his ethereal light.

Apparently, the only way to placate - awesome word - me in Edinburgh, is to leave me in Fopp. I'll have no money by the end of it but at least i'll be cheery and not at the point of mass murder.
I wish i was more in liking of the city but there's too many people and they annoy me!
So yes, Fopp is my asylum. If only they would reopen it in Dundee, i would be a very happy bunny. I miss the world cinema section!
I did however, completely forget to replace this sucker. An album i was saving from my birthday, over two months ago, only to discover it in this state! I've never seen an untouched cd so damaged. Gutted.

"You must distort to transform what is called appearance into image."

- Francis Bacon

"I think it was Carl Jung who said one of the best ways to address reality and truth is fantasy, you know? Because the important truth cannot be addressed menially, by normal drama. The reason why we carve gargoyles and angels is because we cannot explain what we feel other than through those figures. It's intrinsic to the human endeavour to have these creatures be part of your life."

Shakespeare and Company, is an independent bookstore located in the 5th arrondissement of Paris's Left Bank. Shakespeare and Company serves as a bookstore and also a lending library, specializing in English-language literature. The upstairs also serves as a makeshift dormitory for travellers, known as "tumbleweeds," who earn their keep by working in the shop for a couple of hours each day.

Some ideas. I'm trying to create a pulse. Sod knows how you do that but i'm trying. I don't think the eyes are honest enough.

I eventually finished Hangover Square, yet another book i'm left completely confounded by. Not because it was crap but because i can't figure out if it was crap or ineffectual or even worse, dull but thinking of itself as having something very important to say and making the reader feel stupid for not quite getting it! I loathe books like that. Either way, i'm disappointed, i held such high hopes for it. I'm now reading Crime and Punishment, i feel quite ashamed for not reading it until now. Literary cretin =]